A murder happened in broad daylight, for which there will likely be no justice.
Andres Guardado was murdered on June 18th by Los Angeles Sheriffs Deputy Miguel Vega. We know this because forensics suppressed by Sheriff Alex Villanueva were released immediately following Vega’s lawyers press conference where his story was finally arrived at and conveyed to an internal investigation being allegedly conducted by the Homicide detectives at the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s department, and no where else. Vega’s story cannot be made to conform to the facts. Andres was shot five times in the back and additional wounds indicate he was likely also shot at or shot several more times. One of the five fatal wounds traveled down into his heart at an angle. As you can see on the left, from this autopsy done by the Coroner’s office, it went into his lungs, his esophagus, his aorta and his heart. In order to hit the aorta and the heart going down, that means it hit the heart pretty much directly. If it didn’t kill him instantly it wasn’t a matter of much more time than that.
Andres was shot next, according to the coroner into his lungs, his liver and his diaphragm four more times with the bullets going back to front and UPWARDS. This tells us that if the shooter had not moved very far while shooting, that Andres had. It very strongly suggests that the teen was kneeling when he got the first fatal shot to his heart and then he fell on his face, dead or definitely most rapidly dying and was simply riddled with more bullets.
This single fact alone points to foul play. But there’s so much more below the fold. Continue for the rest if you want to see what other proof of murder has been in the public domain for over two months now.
Miguel Vega claims the teen did get on his knees, but this was before any shooting took place. He’s lying. But his self-defense story has it that this was a sequence of events that began with seeing a handgun near the street, initiating an interaction, something about being looked at, and then the foot chase. Vega claims (through his op union lawyer) he instructed Andres Guardado to halt and place a gun on the ground, which he says the teen did, at which time Vega holstered his own gun, which he admits was drawn and ready to shoot but claims had not yet been fired. It’s also against training and procedure, he would know to wait for backup, which we seen in the video was only a matter of steps behind him.
What Vega says happened next is that after the teen stopped running, he was instructed to set the gun down and to get on his knees. Go ahead and try this. Stand still and put your wallet or cell phone on the ground. After this allegedly happened Vega says he told the teen to get down on his stomach, but that when he did, the gun was “by his hand.” Again, really, actually try this yourself. Don’t just read and imagine the motions. Do it.
It’s then that Vega claims he told the youth verbally not to reach for the gun. This is important legal language he’s carefully inserted into the story, again we hare hearing this from his police union assigned lawyer.
Did it happen? Impossible to prove. But it would be awfully convenient at a trial to say it happened. There’s just one problem. Again, do what I keep saying to do, and you will know. Do it like there was a cop with a gun behind you, slowly and carefully. Set the thing down from a standing position. Then get on your knees, then down on your stomach. The gun/wallet/cell phone is not where you can easily reach it. It’s down by your knees or your shin if you are truly on your stomach. And this is key. Vega’s story is specific, and the teen in his version is prone on his stomach when the shooting starts, and ends.
I won’t go into too many details here but LASD claims there were six shells recovered and the ME confirms it, having arrived around two hours after the shooting, long after the security cameras had all been disabled, another key fact of the case I won’t go into here. All the shells are said to be near the body. Five shots hit center mass, three bullets remaining in the body, and two passing out entering lower on the back and higher on the chest and continuing on who knows where. Somehow out of all this deadly and tightly clustered activity the body has eleven wounds, including grazing wounds to both forearms and a grazing wound on the back of the head said to be from a bullet as well. The last wound that isn’t an entry or exit wound is said to be bullet fragments on the lower stomach area.
Several conclusions are to be drawn here if one is logical and a grand jury would be the ones doing the drawing, in a just world. Andres was shot at while running away, otherwise he wouldn’t have stopped just as he reached the corner. It’s likely he was grazed by one or more of these wild shots and the shells picked up before the Medical Examiner’s arrival. Once he stopped running, he either fell or was instructed to get down on his knees, and then the fatal shot pierced his heart. Judging by the angles, the shooter then seems to have stepped forward, either straddling the body or standing by the shins and put four more rounds into his back, the bullets going upward into his vitals.
Vega’s story and the ME report then both claim there was a gun on the scene. The ME report says the gun was “a few feet west” of the body, which had been attended to by paramedics by that time. This should indicate that the gun is in the alley given that the back lot is to the east of the alley and the adjoining property wall is to the west. A news helicopter seems to have captured footage of the scene, including the then-location of the body fairly early on after the murder, possibly even before the arrival of the Medical Examiner.
The top of this photo would be north, the left side west, right side east. If the ME saw the gun WEST of the body, why does the news chopper seem to show the gun in the small work-lot EAST of the body, near the trunk of a silver car? And if the ME says the body was lying with the head to the west and the toes pointing east, why does the helicopter show the body lying the other direction?
I will draw no conclusions, or advance no pet theories here. I’m just noting that the video differs from the ME report. Here is the scene report that places the handgun, shell casings and other evidence in relation to one another and the alley, lot etc. By rights the gun should be visible in the alley according to what the ME is saying he witnessed.
And below is the description of the body and its condition as found. I’m tempted to speculate that the ME simply made a clerical error and reversed the east and west positions of head and feet. But then there’s this shot of the gun as seen from the air, that tops the blog post. A gun on it’s left side (as described) but clearly in the lot, not the alley. It’s nearest the victim’s head, not his feet. Again, what is the explanation for this?
Go back to your experiment with the keys/wallet/ cell phone. If the gun was ever in the vicinity of the teen’s shins or knees, or, ,where he could reach it (according to Vega’s cop union lawyer) why is the body out in the alley?
EMTs would seemingly turn the body from face down to face up, but would they move it substantially otherwise? And why or how would anyone reverse it, head to toe?
One possible element, I won’t call it an explanation, concerns the element of timing. Shortly after the shooting, several things happened in an unknown sequence. Andres’ family arrives on the scene. Other LASD patrol officers arrived, LASD detectives and/or other higher ranking supervisory LASD officers arrive, and person or persons from the Police union arrives (maybe, probably, most likely) and the EMTs arrive. We would know the order and the timing if LASD would release the entire video taken from across the street. They have yet to do so. Another thing we seem to know that happened is that 6-8 security cameras in the lot or nearby were disabled. But when, and by whom, and for what purpose? Take another look at the still frame of that shows the body in the alley. On the front of the building are 3 or 4 cameras that aren’t there later.
Speculation: the family arrived before the throw-down gun could be secured and brought to the location. Vega and/or his confidantes placed it where it couldn’t be seen from the street as a means to disguise the arrival time, just as the security cameras were smashed, removed/disabled for the same reason: to buy time and obscure the falsification of key evidence.
Fact: ME’s report doesn’t seem to match photographic evidence.
Tuesday, Aug 25, 2020 · 6:55:42 AM +00:00 · willisnewton
notes on diagram: Not to scale, clearly. The “third man”could likely see into the alley quite well but the gun appears to be just out of the line of sight, conveniently since it likely was not there until someone brought it and someone placed it, Same goes for the person or persons in the white Lexus. These people witnessed Vega’s actions and seemingly those of Andres’ kneeling.
Tuesday, Aug 25, 2020 · 8:30:18 PM +00:00 · willisnewton
Update: thanks to a comment, we are figuring out that the ME has read his compass wrong and all his descriptions are seemingly reversed. Andres fled south. He ended up with his head to the west and his feet to the east but the ME has it the other way around. Seems unlikely anyone moved his head and feet around 180 Degrees, but the way his notes read suggested that.
Tuesday, Aug 25, 2020 · 9:09:30 PM +00:00 · willisnewton
This is not to scale and only represents basic orientation (NOT DISTANCES) of objects as described by ME and transposed assuming he had N and S reversed in his notes. What it tells me is that the killer stood close. There wasn’t an angle or room for him to be far away, anyways. I am guessing the hat came off as the teen lay on his face, deceased, and the body was flipped over ending up NORTH of the original spot, marked more or less accurately by location of the possibly unmoved hat.
This map is beyond specualtion. It’s admittedly in the realm of conjecture, but i post it here anyway for discussion purposes. I draw few conclusions from it myself.
It’s possible that Andres was caught up with by Vega’s pursuit to an extent that rounding the corner no longer provided him with any cover. It seems more likely that one of his secondary wounds was inflicted before the fatal shot down into his back, and this is why he stopped running. He was hot by a wild shot from down the alley, fired in frustration or anger, etc. and not proper procedure. If Vega wanted to admit to this shot he could have, by saying ANdres pointed the gun at him and he fired defensively. But he doesn’t say that happened partly because Vega knows there were witnesses watching the foot chase, and also to say that means that his partner Hernandez would then be forced to testify about it. Hernandez seems willing to go so far and no further, claiming he did not have the angle to see Andres if/when he reached for a gun because the teen was partway around the corner. The casing from that wild, long distance shot that graved the teen of sprayed him with fragments was likely removed from the alley and never tagged into evidence. The body has 11 wounds said to trace to six casings. Some of the secondary wounds are on Andres’ front and some on his back. Yet Vega’s tale has the teen fully on his stomach for “all six” and only six shots. It’s too unlikely.